I survived my first Turkey Day away from home

Turkey latte art from last weekend

Welp, I survived my first official holiday without the fam. Yesterday didn't really feel like Thanksgiving to me, though.  Not sure if you've noticed, but casinos are a 24/7, 365 day a year kind of operation - we don't get holidays.  I haven't been here long enough to be able to take vacation, so I woke up, set the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to record and headed my happy ass to work.  Our office was dead since most people I work were on PTO (personal time off), so it was nice to be able to work in silence and not have to run off to a meeting every other hour.

After work, I headed home to make macaroni and cheese and to get ready for Thanksgiving Dinner at my BFF Kristina's house (the one I lived with when I first moved here). I also made a strawberry pretzel dessert per her request.  Shout out to fellow bloggess Brooke from Tales of My Fairytale for sharing this recipe with me.  It was a hit.

If I were to make it again (for my own personal preference), I'd use graham crackers instead of pretzels to make the crust.  If you love a salty, sweet combo than this recipe is for you. If you like all sweet, then I suggest a graham cracker crust.  

The turkey, which was phenom might I add. If I had to made a turkey, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

All the fooooood. 

Get in my belly. 

Me eating (not really):

So that about sums up my Thanksgiving. I came home after dinner and a game of Apples to Apples, finished watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade I recorded and fell asleep.

Thanksgiving was great and all, but what I'm really looking forward to is CHRISTMAS!  My most favorite time of year. I personally don't believe in decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving. I don't know why I don't, I just don't. I feel like it kinda ruins Thanksgiving. Enjoy Thanksgiving THEN soak up everything Christmas.

Anyway ...

My family (including REESE) is coming to VEGAS FOR CHRISTMAS! Excited does not even begin to describe it. Speaking of Reese, I leave you with this video message from him to me. Melt my heart, why don't you?

"The Best" rolled sugar cookies with icing

Happy Halloween goblins! In the spirit of the holiday, I made some homemade Halloween sugar cookies with icing last night to take to work. I Googled "best sugar cookie" and was directed to allrecipes.com, which had a recipe for The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies.  I also found this Sugar Cookie Icing recipe, which was legit. Actually, both recipes were legit, so I'm sharing them with you today.

The Bargain Blonde's adventures in baking:

Do you love the breast cancer awareness eggs?

Bats, pumpkins and boo! shapes, oh my

Halloween Cookiepalooza

If you don't own a silicone slipmat and you ever plan on baking, I'm telling you right now that you need one in your life. They make baking so much easier. The bottom of cookies turn out perfectly every time and are so easy to transfer to cooling racks.

I baked mine for exactly 6 minutes at 400 degrees F and transferred them to cooling racks immediately after taking them out of the oven. They were the perfect chewiness. Ice after cooled. Full recipes below:

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

1.5 cups butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Sugar Cookie Icing

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 teaspoons milk

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Food coloring (Orange = 4 drops red + 2 drops yellow)

Anyone have any fun Halloween plans? Since I live in an apartment, I am going to my bestie Kristina's house to pass out candy because I want to see all the kiddos in their costumes.

Speaking of kiddos ... how cute is Reese in his costume for preschool on Monday? This is his "Captain America pose" he said:

Ugh, he's the cutest ever. My heart can't handle it.

My 4th of July via what else? Instagram.

I'm going to make this post quick, but I wanted to share some pictures from my 4th of July for those of you that don't have Instagram.

Tomorrow I will be hosting my Friday Favorites link-up, so be sure to link up!  I'm setting it to post at 7 a.m. EST ... I better see all your pretty faces linked-up. Mmmmkay?

The flag flying in my yard!

Melt my heart.

I honestly did nothing for the first half of my day but watch TV, do laundry and paint my nails.  That gold is "Golden Ticket" from the Sonia Kashuk summer line at Target (I blogged about her lipstick here) and I'm pretty obsessed with it.  The other color that looks red is actually a pink and it's an Ulta color I've had forever called "Shocking". 

I tried out this bloody mary mix I hauled back from Charleston and it was legit, Reese had the cutest 4th of July outfit on and we brought BBQ home from Rudy's BBQ for dinner.  

Reese and Bear taking a dip at the pool.

We could see our city firework display from our house, so we brought chairs and an ottoman out to sit and wait for the show to start.

Bear was excited for his first 4th of July ever!  Ruff.

Father and son. Hash tag presh.

I hope you all enjoyed your time off! I totally thought it was Saturday all day yesterday.  The 4th falling in the middle of the week is unconstitutional if you ask me. 

God Bless the US! 

Quick Easter Weekend Recap

I hope you all had a great weekend however you spent it.  It's Monday and I have not had my coffee yet, so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking. Everybody OK with that?  Good. 

Friday evening I dyed Easter eggs with my nephew, Reese.   I probably have not done this since I was a kid and I have to admit I was pretty excited about dyeing the eggs.  Maybe more than him. 

Saturday morning he got his Easter baskets before an egg hunt by the pool.

For inquiring minds: My brother and I live together and Reese is with my brother half the week and half the week with his Mom, so we had Easter on Saturday with him.  Sunday he is with his momma bear.

Easter Sunday egg hunt @ church. Go Reesey Go!

Reese and his Mommy.  I know, I know.  She's gorgeous.  

Sunday I woke up and decided to treat myself with Starbucks and Einstein Bagels. It was a good call.

I probably had not had these bagels in over a year.  I forgot how good they are.

I was about 50 pages into The Hunger Games, so my goal was to finish the book on Sunday so I could see the movie.  Finish it I did.  If you have not read The Hunger Games yet: DO IT.  You will not be able to put the book down, I promise.

I may be slightly insane, but after I finished the book around 6 p.m., I went and saw the movie immediately at 7 p.m.  The movie was amazing!  And um ... Liam Hemsworth (plays Gale) = HOT

Then, I came home and started reading Catching Fire (book 2 of the trilogy) until I fell asleep. Normal.

I have a feeling this book may be finished before Tuesday rolls around.  It's that good.

The Target Curse

Last night I went to Target to stock up on my beloved Purpose face wash and this may or may not be my receipt from that little excursion:

Excuse?  What is it with Target?  I've decided there must be a "Target Curse" because this happens to my checking account every. single. time.  I know I'm not the only one.  Maybe I should just ban myself from going there. Hahahahaha ... yah right.  You know, it's times like these I'm glad I don't have a husband who monitors my spending.  I'd be in T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

I had the best of intentions.  I was going to run in, get my face wash and go home.  As usual, the Target Curse got the best of me.  Next thing you know I'm rummaging through the Dollar Spot, perusing the beauty rows, stopping by the doggy aisle (a new stop for me), picking out Easter candy for my nephew, checking out the home decor and I knew it would be a bad idea, but can you really go to Target and not take a peek at the clothes?

I found so many cute dresses and tops, but I resisted purchasing any clothing items since my cart was already full of $130 worth of who knows what.  That's not to say I don't want to go back and scoop some stuff up.  Specifically, all of these flirty Spring combos, which are less than $75 each:

Do you love?  I love. If I didn't have a little thing called bills to pay for, I'd buy all of these outfits.


Speaking of outfits.  May I direct attention to this little Bargain Blonde adorned in what looks like a puff paint t-shirt, white ruffle socks and pink Keds?  God bless the fashion of the 90s.  We've come a long way kiddos.  

Everyone have a Happy Passover or a Happy Good Friday/Easter!  May you resist this Target Curse this weekend.  

Lucky in love

Even though I don't have a "plus one", I am lucky to feel love every day from my amazing friends, family and supportive blog readers.

So whether you are single or taken this Valentine's Day, broaden your idea of love and celebrate those who mean the most to you.

5 chick flicks to drown your single sorrows this V-Day

Valentine's Day is officially one week away, which means it's almost time for my party of one pity fest.  This is the one day a year I can unequivocally, without-a-doubt, tell you that being single sucks. All those tricks in the office get pro-flowers, tacky stuffed animals and chocolate dipped strawberries delivered and I spend my day cursing them in my head.

I know "it's only a day" and every year I tell myself I'm not going to care that the only boy in my life still pees in his pull-up at night, but there is just something about Valentine's Day that makes me feel at one with Bridget Jones.

 "This Year's Resolutions: Stop smoking. Stop drinking. Find inner poise. Go to the gym three times a week. Don't flirt with the boss. Reduce thighs. Learn to love thighs. Forget about thighs. Stop making lists." 
- Bridget Jones

Although I've contemplated a bath with an electrical appliance to ease the pain, drowning my sorrows in a marathon of chick flicks is a much safer and less drastic alternative.  I'm totally stealing this idea from my doppelganger Lauren Conrad, but here are my top five  favorite chick flicks of all time.

All my single ladies: What are you planning on doing this Valentines Day?  
Anyone care to join me for a Chick Flick marathon?

To: Lindsey ... Love, Santa

This is not a "omg come fawn over what I got for Christmas because I am so awesome and privileged post" (valley girl voice).  Trust. I am not that girl and y'all should know this by now.  I use $5 shampoo and drink gas station wine like it's going out of style. I want to know what YOU got for Christmas, so I figured your pretty little faces might want to see what old St. Nick left for me under the tree.

All right, now that we got that settled, shall we take a look at my goods?

First up is the now infamous cat hat, which was quite a hit in yesterday's post.  If you'd like to embrace your inner feline, you can get your own at your local Target.  Target has it all, but we already knew this.

And to those of you saying I look like a Victoria's Secret model in the first pic: bless you.  You are blind ... i mean kind.

You might be a wine-o if ...

You get three bottles of wine, wine stoppers, a high heeled wine holder, a wine opener, magnetic wine charms, wine tissues, wine napkins and four more of your favorite wine glasses from your family for Christmas. *hangs head in shame*

I don't think I can continue on with this post any longer without showing you my new beloved.  The Michael Kors Gansevoort Large Tote in Teak. It was love at first sight and I've been coddling her like a baby ever since.

My mom and I found this Jewelry Armoire from the Cottage Collection at Target for half off, which matches my new room perfectly . Obvs i had to have.  While we're on the subject, I hope to do a tour of my room soon.  It's almost complete!

Looks like so when opened:

My grandma got me a few new gadgets for the kitchen.  A legit Paula Deen colander because my previous ones from my college days were tiny, plastic and deformed.  Look ma, I'm all grown-up with a big girl colander.

A mashed potato masher because I didn't own one and "every body knows" (Phaedra Parks) a good Southern girl needs to know about to properly mash a tater:

And because I'm obsessed with Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton and they got married on Don Strange Ranch like I want to some day, my Grandma got me this book filled with Don Strange's famous recipes as well as  personal anecdotes by the blog's author and his wife of 48 years.  

I've only had a chance to skim, but I already love it and want to try out so many of his recipes like yesterday.

Speaking of Miranda and Blake,  I also got her latest CD, Four the Record.  I cannot stop listening.  Every girl needs this CD because her songwriting is just beyond.  "The Same Old You" goes out to Lucifer, the ex.

I'm now the owner of this 10-piece baking set perfect for cooking and storing in the same dish. Loves.

Now for the beauty items.  Another new prized possession: a CHI BLOW DRYER!!  This Chi dryer dries my hair so much faster and makes it so much smoother than my old Revlon blow dryer. You don't even know.

When you have ridiculously thick and Amish length hair like me, you need this in your life.

I also got a baby curling iron to match my regular one:

My cousin got me this Fekkai Glossing Starter Kit, which I used for the first time yesterday.  I can't remember the last time my hair felt this soft, so needless to say, I'm now a believer in hair glossing.

I got a much needed refill on my face lotion, the Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturing Gel.  The best for oily skin IMHO.  I don't know how I ever went without this every day.

I didn't take pictures of all of my stuff, but I also got a new set of chocolate brown sheets for my bed, all the clothes I asked for on my wish list, jewelry, VS lip gloss and pj bottoms, Starbucks gift cards, e.l.f. make-up, Clinique make-up, scarves and gloves, etc.

I am blessed beyond belief and my family did way too much.  Santa must have put me on top of his nice list this year, but really ... do you blame the guy?  KIDDING.